dialogue Talking about… Four world cities’ work styles Work and the Transformative headquarters Metropolis Considering work’s future 25. CRE’s new global perspective A Gensler publication Whatever its location, work today THERE’S EVEN MORE dialogue ONLINE AT reflects the urbanity of the city. 25 dialogue.gensler.com/v/25 To make it easy to keep up, There’s an expectation for vitality, we’ve created a landing page that takes you to the latest amenity, and spontaneity that updates as soon as they appear. gives an edge to the companies and metropolises that offer them. 2 14 26 32 FEATURES DEPARTMENTS 2 26 22 Work and the Metropolis Re-Worked Roundtable How four world cities put an individual Two Gensler research initiatives open A global perspective is a necessity stamp on work and the workplace. a window on work’s potential futures. today for CRE leaders East and West. 14 30 Headquarters Transformed Research The headquarters persists, not least as Gensler’s 2013 US Workplace Survey a vehicle for sometimes massive change. shows the outsize impact of focus. 32 News + Views SFO’s T3/E, Detroit’s towers of power, and London’s Ferrari street theater. ON THE COVER: The atrium of SKS Partners’ 888 Brannan Street office building in San Francisco. opposite: Level39 at London’s Canary Wharf (graphics by Graffiti Life). above, from left: 888 Brannan; the head- quarters of the National Bank of Abu Dhabi; Gensler New York’s future-of-work proposal; and SFO Terminal 3’s renewed Boarding Area E, also in San Francisco. Level39 at London’s Canary Wharf. Work + The Four world cities, separated by oceans and continents, have much in common, yet are uniquely themselves. Each has patterns of movement, development, and physical setting that shape how and where work happens, and convey a spirit that, however direct or subtle in its expression, is like no other metropolis. Here’s an update on how Gensler sees them. BY ALLISON ARIEFF dialogue 25 I Talking About Work 3 clockwise, from top left: Societe Generale, Weitz & Luxenberg, and Calvin Klein Jeans—all in Manhattan. There is a growth ring around New York City. Manhattan spills over economically to Brooklyn, Queens, and New Jersey, with new development and redevelopment to match. Success at the core is transforming the whole area. Says Vecchione, “The city is so connected, and new life is gravitating toward those adjacencies.” These shifts also reflect where the workforce lives: in Brooklyn, for example, prompting compa- nies to relocate from Midtown—oriented toward the suburbs—to Lower Manhattan. Manhattan remains a world financial cen- ter, attracting international banks from cit- ies like Paris and Tokyo. “They bring their culture with them,” says Gensler’s Laurent Lisimachio. While they celebrate these ties to home, the needs of global banking “require modern, collaborative work set- tings,” he adds. “Like the American banks, they have to break down silos to deal with NEW complexity and regulation.” New York City is also seeing the growth of sectors that historically have not been york active in real estate. “Fashion and beauty Less about downtown and companies are rethinking their approach,” Lisimachio says. In Manhattan’s garment midtown, New York is more district, filled with older buildings, change about opening up new areas is afoot. Many of these companies had their offices in several buildings; now they for business (and pleasure) understand the benefits of consolidating. that are closer to where the Not just a cost-saving measure, “It’s an opportunity to revive the connection its workforce lives. people feel to the company and its brand— to jump-start the organization,” he notes. Companies are locating in New York City to incubate new companies as well as to “New York City used to have distinct transform existing ones. They’re attracted divisions around neighborhoods—not so to the talent that a global economic center much physical but psychological,” explains like New York pulls in. While some opt for Gensler’s Tom Vecchione. “Over the last the newer towers, others “want to be in 10 years, those walls have come down.” the right part of the city to express who There are shifts and transformations hap- they are and the business they’re in,” says pening everywhere. Economic divisions Vecchione. Times Square is an example, are shifting and districts are opening up. “a thick, dense, important place that’s con- “Companies now engage with the city, nected now to Hell’s Kitchen’s coolness.” making it their campus,” he adds. Vibrant Companies curate their brands for the neighborhoods are preferred because if benefit of customers and employees, he they’re rich in amenities, the workspace adds. “A larger part of the city is in play can forgo them—a substantial savings. now as they decide where to locate next.” 4 dialogue 25 I Talking About Work 5 While the big tech companies in Silicon The tight market means that tech ten- Valley continue to prefer large campuses, ants are going into 1970s-era buildings San Francisco—where many tech workers downtown, but older buildings in the city’s live—has a growing pull, especially among SoMa district “attract young companies consumer- and app-focused companies looking for authenticity,” says Gensler’s and startups. Space is at a premium in the Collin Burry. SKS Partners’ 888 Brannan city, but locating there makes a statement. is a prime example. “It has lots of texture, “Ever since Oracle, a Silicon Valley head- because SKS’s Dan Kingsley wanted it to quarters has expressed a company’s brand,” express the original materials—concrete, says Gensler’s Randy Howder. “In San timber, and columns.” The centerpiece Francisco, you can either build vertically is its active, community-drawing atrium. or remake what exists. Older buildings “Having an event-and-education space is san appeal because they communicate a kind part of 888 Brannan’s drawing power,” says of scrappiness and upstartness.” Gensler’s Dominique Price. “It’s a popular place to host lectures, investor meetings, A new headquarters in Silicon Valley takes and special occasions.” Features like these FRANCIsco three years to develop; in the city, it can helped 888 Brannan land Airbnb, whose Silicon Valley is tech’s historic epicenter. While take three times as long. Salesforce.com headquarters Gensler also designed. abandoned a ground-up headquarters in new campuses are being built there, tech is Mission Bay in favor of an urban campus in Tech’s growth is spawning new centers in a dominant workplace tenant in San Francisco, six different downtown highrises. That has the city (Dogpatch, Hunters Point) and its own challenges, Howder notes: while beyond. Oakland is urban, Howder says, Oakland, and other Bay Area cities as well. new towers are going up, the vacancy rate but Palo Alto is a walkable town—a transit- is low. Salesforce.com is consolidating served, “middle density,” neither city top and bottom: Salesforce.com into a smaller footprint because it believes and 888 Brannan Street, San nor suburb—that a growing number of tech its workforce wants to be in San Francisco. Francisco. (Tenant Airbnb’s companies see as an attractive option. headquarters overlooks the 888 Brannan Street atrium.) opposite: Facebook headquar- ters, Menlo Park. 6 dialogue 25 I Talking About Work 7 The atrium of 888 Brannan Street is an event space and amenity for every tenant. 8 dialogue 25 I Talking About Work 9 above: Nokia West London Headquarters. opposite, from top: Level39 and the UK headquarters of a global london bank, both in Canary Wharf. In the last 30 years, London has become A city of multiple, transit-linked Financial-tech accelerator Level39 chose to More established companies also make up a truly global city where more than 200 locate on the 39th floor of Canary Wharf’s the city’s tech sector. Nokia rethought its languages are spoken. Not simply Europe’s clusters, London is diversifying One Canada Square Tower, a setting that London headquarters to give its people lots main financial center, it’s also a tech hub. its economy and leveraging its puts it at the heart of its financial-sector of incentives to stop working from home This is a city of clusters, each built up customer base. This simplifies beta testing yet still leverage a mobile work style. around transit links. Banks, lawyers, and mobile talent. of software and app-delivered products, It pairs a fluid range of settings with great professional services are in Canary Wharf. but it also puts the young companies it flexibility in how they’re used. The focus Tech City houses technology/media/tele- accelerates close to potential investors. is on collaboration, much like coworking comm (TMT) companies, from startups to (London is not yet a hotbed of venture space, but Nokia has scaled them up to the Microsoft and the BBC. Shoreditch is also capitalism.) Level39 also mirrors the rise of needs of a much larger organization. home to startups. Other businesses cluster coworking spaces. INSTANT VISIBILITY in Soho, Mid-Town, and the West End. As London has grown as an international left: Designed and built in a mere 90 days, TechHub In the next 10 years, metropolitan London “For many in London, the city is their business center, it has finally embraced tall London’s coworking space could add two million more people. workplace,” Tidd says. “This is why office buildings. “Getting permission and financ- appeals to nascent com- buildings are adding coworking space.” The ing to build them is a slow process, often panies and makes them visible to investors. above: With banking deregulation in the 1980s, Gensler-designed TechHub London speaks spanning economic cycles,” Swinhoe notes.